


Fragile Bonds

by zabjade



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 16:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16747606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zabjade/pseuds/zabjade
Summary: Buffy wakes from a nightmare shortly after the events of The Pack.





	Fragile Bonds

_She reaches out, meaning to gently grab her friend’s shoulder. There’s a horrible crunch of shattering bone, combined with a scream of agony. Xander falls to his knees, eyes full of pain and betrayal._

_“What did you do?” Willow cries out. “Why would you do something like this? I thought we were your friends!”_

_“I-I didn’t mean….” She trails off as she backs away, too stunned and horrified to know what to say._

_Willow follows, coming into her personal space. “You didn’t what? You didn’t mean to hurt him? Don’t you think you should be able to control yourself by now?”_

_Willow is too close. She brings up her hands to hold the redhead back, maybe lightly push her back. Willow goes flying back, slamming into the wall. Both of her friends are hurt because of her, staring at with fear, and hate, and—_

Buffy’s eyes snapped open. For a moment, she just lay there in the darkness, adjusting to the fact that it had just been a dream. Then she slowly sat up and turned on her lamp so she could stare at her hands. She slowly flexed them, curling her fingers into fists before straightening them out. They looked so delicate. Clean. Soft. A really nice manicure. They didn’t look like the type of hands that could crush someone’s head like a melon if she wanted to.

_Kind of the reverse of the Rock Biter, I guess,_ she thought. His big, strong hands hadn’t been enough to hold onto his friends. _They look like such small, weak hands…._

Xander had attacked her. Or, well, the hyena in his body had. It had made him stronger and faster than normal. But not stronger and faster than her. Not really. He had managed to pin her, but it had mostly been because she hadn’t wanted to hurt her friend’s body. She had, though. She’d knocked him out by hitting him with a desk. Was the memory loss because of the possession or because she’d caused damage to his brain? Damage to his brain…. She might have given one of her best friends brain damage.

She shuddered and squeezed her eyes shut. Whatever the reason was, she felt guiltily relieved. Willow knew she’d hit Xander with a desk. And he’d been told. But neither of them had really _experienced_ her hitting him with the desk. It was abstract to them, the idea that she could hurt them so easily. For her, it was a stark reality.

Thank god for the memory loss. She didn’t think she could handle it, if Xander had remembered. The fear of her. Possibly even guilt that the hyena had used his body to put her in that position. It was better this way, with only her really knowing. With only her understanding just how fragile her friends really were. Only her having nightmares….

Only her.


End file.
